Redesign Project 5 - Nursing Home Brochure



Left side is the Back Cover, Right side is the Front Cover as the brochure would appear when folded in half.



This is how the inside of the brochure would appear when opened. 

I decided to redesign these two pages of information my mom was given while searching in town for a nursing home to put my grandmother in. I knew the information was poorly designed and confusing even before I was in a document design class. For one thing, on one sheet, all the text is centered, one of the classic alignment mistakes that rookie text producers make. Another thing on that information sheet that obviously needed to be fixed was the font and the order in which the different chunks of information were placed. Pretty much everything about these documents sucked, so I thought that making these two separate pieces of poorly compiled information sheets into one well-designed and inviting brochure that could actually clearly convey important information to an audience would be a welcomed challenge to me.

Font

Like I said, the font that was used for the text in the original information sheets is all wrong. For one thing, pretty much every new chunk of information is in a different font - very unprofessional and confusing because there is no real sense of unity to any of the information. I chose Calibre font because it is easy to read, as it a sans serif font, and the letters are nicely spaced. I made most of the text white because it shows up clearly on the blue background of the brochure. For text that is not as important or is an extra bit of information, I made the font a tan color because it still shows up clearly on the blue background, but it doesn’t pop as much as the more important white font.

Color

I chose a violet blue to be the main color of the brochure because it seems soothing and matches the violet blue in the image of the sky I chose to use on the front and back covers. I chose an image of the sky because it also seems soothing, which is something that the likely audience for the brochure will need during the trying time of having to decide what nursing facility in which to place their ailing parent. I also chose an image of the sky because it is reminiscent of Heaven, and the patients who would likely be entering the facility might be close to the end of their lives.

Alignment

Most of the text on one of the original information sheets is centered, so in my brochure design I made sure that the text was left-aligned – much easier to read. I tried to center most of the images because it makes a nice separation between the important text and the images added for emotional benefit. I also bulleted most of the information because it clearly defines which information goes together, and when a new, separate piece of information begins. I tried not to include many images because I didn’t want to bog down the brochure with unnecessary clutter and images of old people and nursing home beds and whatnot.

Wording

I changed some of the wording used to explain what Medicare covers and what it doesn’t because some of the information was simply repeated over and over again in just slightly different ways, which is confusing to the reader who automatically assumes that each block of text should convey different information. I also added information about the Health Care Financing Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because the reader, who is likely to be the child of an aging or injured parent entering a nursing home, may want to read up on how and by who that charge was actually agreed upon.

The original information sheets included the number for the Admissions Director of the Heritage Oaks Facility, but I added the actual name of the Director of Admissions for the Heritage Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in my brochure design because it makes the brochure seem more personal. It would also make it easy for the reader to contact the correct person when they call for information about the facility.



Here's a recap of what the two original information sheets looked like.